The Night is Still and Dark
by optimustaud
Summary: AU-ish Amber grows younger with each passing year. Hei is safer than he ever realized


I own nothing

Spoilers for the series.

Enjoy everyone!

* * *

Amber was an old woman when the Gates first appeared and the sky changed. One night she sat out on the porch of her home, aging husband at her side and looked up into the impenetrably dark sky. There in the darkness she watched the first sharp prick of new light rise in the sky. That night her world ended in ice and apathy.

"What's wrong?" her husband had asked. She didn't see the point in answering him. Her grandchildren had crowded around her like eager puppies waiting for her affection and approval. She found she couldn't care one way or another about any of it. She went through the motions of her life without feeling. She wondered if something inside her had finally broken down beneath the weight of her seventy years of life. Then one day a smart dressed man from the government knocked on her door and changed her life again.

She left with that man and forgot her husband, her children, and her grandchildren. She was no longer a part of their world and it would be irrational to waste time dwelling on it. Instead she threw her energy into learning the in roads of her new life. Her power to travel through time made her one of the most valuable operatives within MI6. Amber was learning what it meant to age backwards through time.

Then came Heaven's War. Amber remembered her almost death, the pain of experiencing the destruction of Heaven's Gate. Before the force of that explosion could wipe her from existence one thought crossed her mind:

_Turn Back_

The black sky was now tinted silver with the light of thousands of new stars. Amber couldn't forget that she was the first.

* * *

She searched for years for the key that would stop the explosion. Trial and error brought her to the mysterious Syndicate. She used all the skills at her disposal to penetrate the ranks of that organization until eventually she was able to learn the cause of the destruction of Heaven's Gate. Her first real hope came when she found Heaven's Gate's Meteor Fragment and its ability to amplify a Contractors natural abilities.

She nearly died a hundred times as she shifted back and forth through time looking for a way to prevent the Contractors extinction. She found it in the form of a two Chinese siblings. When she first met Pai and Hei she had dismissed them; they were too young, the boy was human, and while Pai's ability to manipulate electricity was rare it wasn't particularly powerful.

Amber learned the true nature of Pai's power almost by accident. They had been escaping with the Meteor Fragment when they were overwhelmed by the Syndicates' guards. Pai attempted to use her powers. Instead of the familiar pulse of electricity the entire room started glowing blue. They had both been so surprised by the glow they had almost lost the opportunity to escape.

Later she understood. Pai's ability to manipulate electricity was the simplest expression of her power. Pai was able to manipulate matter at the quantum level. Finally, Amber had the weapon she needed to save the Contractors.

* * *

Hei shadowed his sister like a panther; silent, protective, and as stone faced as any Contractor Amber had ever met. He had incredible power in his lithe body and had no trouble keeping up with the rest of Amber's team. There were times when it was easy to forget that this boy wasn't a Contractor.

Hei was without a doubt the strangest human she had ever met. He was a curiosity, an anomaly that fascinated Amber to no end. She wanted to crawl into his head and leaf through the pages of his thoughts. There were times, very few and far between, when he was so filled with emotion that Amber thought he would burst. His anger was explosive and his sadness was devastating. _He hates all of this killing, he only stays because he loves me, _Pai once explained to her. Something about that tugged at the lost echo of her humanity. He was living his life for someone else. Once upon a time, she had done the same.

* * *

Amber watched as Hei guarded his sister while she slept. He was seated on a grassy hilltop, back propped up against a mossy tree stump. Pai was cradled against his chest like a child, fists curled close to her soft lips. Hei's head was tilted up, his eyes tracing the pattern of stars as they fell from the sky. Amber wondered what he saw there.

"Is she making her payment?"

Hei's eyes flicked over her momentarily. He grunted an affirmative response deep in his throat and his eyes traveled back to the sky.

She realized she would have to shock him to a response. She had lived more than a century and for most of that time she had been human. She knew how to shake a recalcitrant man out of his silence. She had done it often enough for her husband on his bad days. "You two are so close, almost like lovers." She teased.

Hei's eyes swung towards her. Something like horror crossed his face and his cheeks darkened with an involuntary blush. "It's nothing like that," he said defensively. He pulled Pai closer to his chest.

It was a wonderfully normal response for an awkward sixteen year old boy.

For days afterward Hei was unable to look her directly in the face. Amber considered it a victory. Pai wondered what was wrong with her brother.

* * *

"Why are you always stargazing?"

"I like the stars."

"Oh? Did you watch them before?"

"Yeah, all the time."

"Did Pai watch them too?"

" . . .yeah. We would go together. Our parents would take us to the country so we would have a clear view of the night sky."

"You know, no matter how much you stare those old stars won't come back."

". . .yeah."

* * *

Hei was sleeping in a dingy field hospital. Pai had staid long enough to hear from the doctors that he would live before leaving to have her own injuries treated. Hei was pale and swathed in clean bandages. His breathing hitched with pain at every inhale.

Amber watched him tremble in troubled sleep. She placed one of her cool hands on his hot forehead and watched, a little surprised as he sighed and settled into a deeper sleep.

She returned the next morning. She was there when he opened his eyes for the first time since the surgery. She spoke with him in soft tones and left only after he had fallen back to sleep.

* * *

Amber barely saw Pai during Hei's recovery. One night Pai came to her, bright blue eyes were as worried. She laid out the documents and blueprints she had stolen on Amber's cot. Together they read the work of Dr. Schroder and his theories on Gate particles and anti-Gate particles. They saw the blueprints of the Saturn Ring. Finally, Amber had found the cause of the destruction of Heaven's Gate.

"Brother would never have left me alone long enough to do this on my own," Pai admitted. "And I don't want him involved in this."

Pai glared challengingly at Amber. "He loves me and he tries so damn hard to take care of me. I don't want him to hurt anymore." Pai was as determined as Amber had ever seen her. This was not love, neither Pai nor Amber were capable of love. This was acknowledgement of a debt that was owed. It was Pai's right to pay it however she chose.

* * *

Amber looked in the mirror.

She was young. Dangerously young. She had wasted decades trying to prevent the tragedy of Heaven's Gate. She had forgotten that Hell's Gate could be used against the Contractors in exactly the same way. She frowned as she examined her smooth cheeks and bright eyes. It brought back old memories of high school dances and dates to the movie theatre. She thought of her husband as a young man. Something that might have been joy stirred within her when she thought of the birth of her two children.

I didn't matter. She was running out of time. She would have to be more careful using her power. At least now she had allies. Pai was with her and soon it would be time to tell Carmine.

* * *

"Hei, do you remember what your parents were like?"

" . . . No."

"You know, I was a mother."

" . . ."

"I've been thinking about them lately. My children. My life before I became a Contractor."

"Why?"

"I dunno."

"Hmph."

* * *

Hei was brooding.

Amber could tell by the slouched, curled shoulders and slumped spine. She approached him through the dark. She invited herself to sit on the mossy log he had perched on. She could feel the heat of his body in the cool evening air.

He turned his head watching her impassively as she sat settled next to him. His eyes were dark and deep. It was enough just to sit with him and listen to the insects calling each other in the dark.

* * *

Hei was laughing.

Amber stopped and listened. It was a sound she had never hoped to hear. She turned her head toward the sound. There was a strange warm feeling spreading through her stomach.

Pai was speaking to him in Chinese, her face bright and a smile beginning to dimple her cheeks as well. She met Amber's eyes over her brother's shoulder. It was a victory for them both.

* * *

Hei was sleeping.

They curled together in a thick bedroll. Amber pressed closer and counted his heartbeats, fingers pressed gently against his chest. Each rhythmic thump lulled her closer and closer to sleep.

* * *

Hei was dying.

He had lost too much blood fighting his way into the gate. And they were out of

time. The sunspot cycle had started. Amber handed Pai the Meteor Fragment. All she could do was watch. Pai turned to Hei, blood oozing twin trails down her childish features. She spoke one word.

_Brother_

The world exploded in a flash of blue and gold.

* * *

"Hei."

"Yeah."

"If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?"

" . . . that's a big question."

"I know, but what would you do. If Pai was safe and you didn't have to fight anymore what would you chose to do?"

" . . . Learn to cook."

"That's . . . really weird Hei."

"I'd find someplace to live far away from the city and I'd learn to cook. Maybe start my own restaurant."

"Hmm . . . I guess I'd never taken you for a chef. Although, given how much you eat . . ."

"Amber?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Hell's Gate was still exposed. Amber traveled back and forth across time once again. She would need help and so Evening Primrose was born. At first she went to Hei, explained to him what had happened, how Pai had fused with him to save his life. He came with her willingly and for a time they were happy together. Eventually the Syndicate caught up with him and he was killed. She tried fifty times, a hundred times and each time the result was the same; Hei died.

So she left him with the Syndicate. She left him all on his own, let him believe that Pai was dead and his lover had betrayed him. She saved his life, but she knew he would never forgive her.

She missed him. His absence was a dull ache in her chest. She saw him every time she looked up at the night sky and hoped that if he could not have happiness that he could at least have a little peace. Maybe she had been wrong before. Maybe she wasn't as incapable of love as she thought.

A piece of her hoped that somehow she would survive this. That in the end she would get her happy ending. She daydreamed about buying a little restaurant and a house out in the middle of nowhere. Hei could cook to his heart's content; she would take care of the business. At night they could return to their home and watch the false stars travel across the sky.

And every time she looked in the mirror her face was younger and younger.

* * *

Amber sat with Yin and waited. She tried not to be jealous of the silver haired doll. Yin was loyal and brave in her quiet way. And Hei would need her in the days to come. She told Yin everything she could about Hei, every little detail she could remember. She hoped it would give her a head start. He shouldn't be alone any more.

Amber could hear Hei's uneven footsteps shuffling up the stone steps. As he rose over the last step she watched him nursing his injured leg. She didn't see the explosive anger simmering in his eyes.

She knew this meeting with him would end badly. The years alone spent blaming her for Pai's disappearance had made him bitter and angry. Something that felt like despair nestled on her tongue when he slapped her. He was prepared to kill her right then and there.

She froze him in time for a moment. She ran her eyes over the lines of his face. He looked tired and determined. She had to strain to reach his shoulders now. His eyes were as impossibly dark as she remembered.

At last she remembered what it was like to be so full of emotion she felt she would burst. She arched up on her toes and leaned towards him for one last kiss.

* * *

Amber was so young, barely three feet tall and made pudgy with puppy fat. It was an interesting perspective. Hei was calm now. She could see the guilt and regret flicker across his sad eyes as they spoke.

Between them lay an ocean of wasted years. She wished that somehow things could have been different, that there had been a way to keep him buy her side as she arranged the events that lead them to this place.

That day against the backdrop of a silvery dark sky the first of the stars dropped to the earth and was content.


End file.
